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This is nothing new….the manipulation of the media by individuals, focus groups and in particular politicians. Can it be ‘regulated’? Well that would be regulating ‘free speech’ and that’s a slippery slope to go on. The media is regulated in China and other countries too numerous to mention, but do we want to start that? Again…….the slippery slope.
Media is especially used as a political and even military tool. Most ‘journalists’ (using the word very loosely) have sold off their souls and their integrity long ago. They’re in it now for the money and probably even more importantly the ‘prestige’. Truth, honesty, balance, equality, in reporting ……pfffffft ……..that’s so far gone you can’t see it anymore. I can see however the predicament they find themselves in. Human beings always aspire to be ‘more’, to be accepted by those in power, to have that same power and be idolized in their own little way. Those who do not go with the flow ….get ostracized and their future in the media is slim, because like many other things, the media is a club. My old Irish grandmother use to say “an honest man is a man with many troubles”…..because too many people do not want to hear the truth…..they want to hear what pleases them, that picture of what things should be which is etched in their minds.
I remember a documentary made by a woman in the southern US going back to New York (her home) after 9/11. On the way she interviewed ordinary people in restaurants and in mom and pop stores and people mowing their lawns and people just sitting on a bench watching the world go by. She interviewed two older men on a bench in Louisiana and she asked what they thought of 9/11 and their reply was…..”we asked for it”. She interviewed two Nam vets who gave her basically the same reply. Because of this and other comments her documentary was censored by the US government and was not broadcast anywhere but in Canada. Why? Because what was said, was not what the government or other media wanted told.
The media had it’s real first dose of truth during the Nam war and the fact that the average person at home for the first time seen the true horrors of war in Technicolor was also one of the reasons that people demanded the war end. The governments seen this and vowed never to have that happen again. The people…….should not know the truth!
The problem with media manipulation is it caters to the ignorant. I don’t mean that in a bad way, what I mean is the dictionary definition “Lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about something in particular”. It is people have to read all different views and then decide based on logic and their own research, what is right and what is wrong and how many shades of grey are in between. Most media aims at those who are just the opposite. But we live in an increasingly ‘instant gratification’ society and most people read the news or watch it and they believe the news is truth. In their minds, they now know….and that’s all they need to know.
People are also herd animals and we always focus on our own ‘kind’. People of different colours or ethnicity are of some minor concern, and fleeting. Out of sight….out of mind….and people in other countries are very out of sight…….unless it’s good press and can bring in readers and up the income and the advertising revenues. Then if one media company makes a big thing of something, they all have to jump on the bandwagon because no one wants to be left behind.
Free speech, in many contexts, even the media, cannot be stopped and shouldn’t be. However it should be required for the media to be able to prove many of the so-called 'facts' they put out for consumption.
What needs to happen is from the day a child enters school they have to be taught to keep an open mind and use their intelligence to make a decision. I remember when I went to a Catholic highschool I was walking down a corridor carrying my books and passed Sister Augustine, and of all nuns she was one of the English teachers. She suddenly told me to STOP! and she said “what is that”!!!!! Amongst my books I was personally reading on my own time was a copy of Jean Paul Sarte, a controversial existentialist and atheist. Having a book like that in a Catholic school was unforgivable and at least worthy of a couple of million our fathers and equal amounts of hail Mary’s. She took it from underneath my arm, looked at it and I thought I was done for….but….instead she smiled and gave it back saying …”keep reading”. Then she walked away. She, understood.
I would also think that maybe this would be something that student lawyers could handle or articling law students. It would give them good court experience for the future. But most cases as you say are pretty cut and dry.
Another thing the cops could do is use more undercover cars. Several years ago my wife and I were in Nova Scotia and an old green Chrysler passed us going in the opposite direction. I said to me wife that if my eyes weren't deceiving me I seen a radar unit on the dashboard of the car. I never thought much of it for a few minutes until a sport car overtook us and went past at the speed of light! A few seconds later the old Chrysler passed us going after the sports car but now the Chrysler had a magnetic flashing light on the roof. Further down the road the cop had the other fellow pulled over and the cop was RCMP and you can bet it wasn't a stock motor under the hood of that old Chrysler.
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